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Focus Your Effort
Start Becoming a Target Market Magnet
Shoot, Now Aim, Ready. There is an old marketing joke, the source of which is beyond recall, that says something like that. The point of the joke is that many businesses typically run promotion campaigns that begin as a scatter blast of marketing efforts in any and every directions and then, after budgets are spent on wasted efforts, a logical analysis of what failed and how a better focus of resources was likely more appropriate is conducted.
Develop a rational understanding of who your marketing efforts should be focused towards.
Of course, it seems much more sensible to develop, in advance, a rational understanding of 'who' marketing efforts should be focused towards as doing so avoids wasting budgets, time, and efforts.
Do you have a worksheet or checklist that helps to describe your hypothetical perfect 'target' client? If no, then you are without an understanding of what defines the person who epitomizes your target market and your marketing efforts are likely just an unaimed shotgun blast into the open air with the hope of hitting something. Instead, develop a proper understanding of who is your perfect client. Provide your hypothetical perfect client a name, such as Barry Buyer or Claire Client. Create a list of the attributes possessed by Barry Buyer and Claire Client. What do you offer that would be a perfect fit for Barry Buyer and Claire Client.
Assess Your Identity
To determine who is your perfect client, begin with yourself. Ask yourself, what is your greatest area of knowledge or experience or skills that you possess as a legal practitioner. For example, previous employment may provide you with a unique understanding of certain legal issues; such as, if you are a former truck driver turned paralegal, your best expertise may be in knowing CVOR regulation off the top of your head. You are also able to 'talk the talk and walk the walk' and thereby quickly 'fit in' with truckers. Perhaps you have a unique cultural background that tends to prefer to do business with others from the same cultural background. For many reasons, having a unique cultural background can be especially beneficial to developing a target market. Maybe you have a second language skill that will be helpful in making potential clients feel more comfortable with you than with your competitors.
Build Your Plans
After you identify who is your perfect client, and what you offer that is a perfect fit, then the next step is to develop your 'target market' action plan. Such an action plan is developed following a review of the best likely means for communicating with the target market. For example, are there professional associations or cultural groups for the people within your target market. If so, what means of communication are those associations or groups using to communicate to those people and can you participate? Are there regular meetings? Is there a newsletter? Are there online discussion groups? Identifying what target market communication methods are available, and the costs, if any, will then help to guide decisions on which methods to choose.
Getting Started
For more on how to identify a 'target market' and for help developing and commencing a target marketing action plan, contact the Marketing.Legal team.